How It All Started

Here at Rubino's Italian Food, we have dedicated our daily lives to promoting a real understanding of high-quality authentic Italian imported goods. We appreciate the importance of the Italian heritage by only carrying the highest quality products Italy can offer. By quality we mean evaluating the ingredients, freshness, taste, and appearance of all the products we carry.

Our customers are the most important stakeholders in our business. We listen to the needs of the consumer, we offer quality products at a competitive price, and we develop customer relationships that turn customers into advocates. Customers first, and quality products have been, and still are, the building blocks to Rubino's Italian Food.

In 1958, Peter Rubino opened Rubino's Italian Food after several attempts at different businesses. Located in Rochester, NY on Portland Avenue; Rubino's specialized in fresh cold cuts and imported cheeses. At noontime every day, crew members would flood Peter Rubinos store for sandwiches. To fill their stomachs, Peter stuffed the end pieces of his cold cuts into fresh Italian bread, selling each submarine sandwich for .99 cents. After similar demand from the construction boom at Rochester General Hospital ushered in more sandwich seekers, Rubino had to slice the whole unit of meat, not just the end pieces.

In 1977, Peter's daughter Phyllis became involved and they decided to move to the Ridge Road East location. With the addition of his son Joseph in 1980, Rubino's expanded into a larger building and opened several new locations. Joe and Phyllis were by then permanent fixtures. Both had been helping out at the store since they were 8 or 9 years old, though each views those memories through different colored lenses.

Phyllis remembers "delivery trucks pulling up to the Portland Avenue store's ground-level window, and workers passing provolone through it to the basement storage area. I would stand on a crate in order to reach the register, working for only a quarters pay."

Joe delivered newspapers during his childhood, but eventually went back to work for his father. After high school, Joe juggled two full-time schedules (one at MCC, the other at the store) with one tough decision: Should he go on to SUNY Brockport or commit himself to carrying on the business. Joe didn't hesitate, "Family came first. I could not leave my dad, and it was too much for Phyllis to take on by herself, as she was starting a family of her own."

To this day, dedication to high quality products and customer service is the trademark of what Rubino's does best!